Ben Parker is travel editor at The Independent. In 2021, Ben won silver in AITO’s Young Travel Writer of the Year category for a feature on sailing around Indonesia with his grandmother, and he has also been shortlisted as Travel Writer of the Year numerous times (AITO 2021 and 2022, Travel Media Awards 2021, TravMedia Awards 2022, ANTOR Media Awards 2024). Ben was previously a commissioning travel editor at The Telegraph and has also written for The Economist, The i, Conde Nast Traveller, The New York Post and Tatler. Ben began writing about travel after working for several years with acclaimed travel writer and author Sophy Roberts. He has also edited two cookery books, and has a soft spot for his hometown in west Dorset.